The healing of a wound is a process that goes through a series of stages with varying cell types and chemical mediators in an appropriately moist environment. During this process, a wound site that is too moist or too dry may lead to inadequate cell proliferation. Traditional bandages have been used in an effort to retain appropriate levels of moisture but are inadequate in many cases for a variety of reasons.
Additionally, bacteria are a significant concern during wound healing, as uncontrolled populations of bacteria, which naturally contaminate all wounds, may give rise to an infection with potentially catastrophic consequences. This problem is complicated by the variety of bacteria which may be present, the increasing occurrence of drug-resistant bacteria, and patient drug allergies. While bandages again have been used to keep additional contamination from reaching the wound, they are again largely ineffective in many cases and further have little or no impact on contamination existing prior to bandage application.
Oxidative bursts in certain cells, such as macrophages of the vertebrate immune system, naturally produce a variety of highly reactive oxygenated species which can control bacterial populations. However, the amount of naturally occurring oxidative bursts is sometimes inadequate to quickly resolve contamination. This leads to greater possibility of infection, particularly where environments having lesser or greater moisture undesirably result in slower healing.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide and deliver multifunctional compounds with a broad spectrum of wound healing properties to a wound site that overcomes some or all of these and other drawbacks that currently exist in wound healing.